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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, known in Japan as New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (新機動戦記ガンダムW, Shin Kidō Senki Gandamu Uingu?), was an anime series in the mecha genre, and is one of the alternate universe Gundam series, taking place in the After Colony timeline. It is the second alternate universe in the Gundam media franchise, following Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The plot centers around a war between Earth and its colonies in space; however, in contrast to the Universal Century continuity, the Gundams in Wing are more closely allied to each other than they are to any particular side in the conflict unfolding around them.

The series aired across Japan on the terrestrial TV Asahi network. The series ran for forty-nine half-hour episodes, beginning on April 7, 1995 and ending on March 29, 1996. Masashi Ikeda was the overall director of the series. Katsuyuki Sumizawa (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers) wrote the scenario for the series and was one of three official script-writers, along with Akemi Omode and Katsuhiko Chiba. Ikeda wrote one script himself and one with Omode and one with Sumizawa. Toshifumi Kawase also wrote three scripts in the latter part of the first half of the series. Kō Ōtani composed the music. The series was loosely based on the original 1979 Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime

Plot

Mankind has colonized space (with clusters of colonies at each of the five Earth-Moon Lagrange points), and, down on the Earth, the nations have united as the United Earth Sphere Alliance. The Alliance rules the colonies with an iron fist. The colonies desire a peaceful resolution to the situation, joining together in a movement headed by the pacifist Heero Yuy. In the year After Colony 175, Yuy is shot dead by an assassin (believed to be Odin Lowe), forcing the colonies to search for other paths to peace. The assassination also prompts five disaffected scientists from the Organization of Zodiac, much more commonly referred to as OZ, to turn rogue after the completion of the mobile suit prototype Tallgeese.

The story of Gundam Wing begins with the start of “Operation: Meteor,” the scientists’ plan for revenge against the OZ military organization. The operation involves five young boys who have each been chosen and trained by one of the five rogue scientists, then sent to Earth independently in extremely advanced mobile suits, one designed by each of the scientists, known as “Gundams”. Their mobile suits are called Gundams because they are constructed from a rare and astonishingly durable material known as Gundanium alloy, which can only be created in outer space. Each Gundam is sent from a different colony and the pilots are unaware of the presence of the other pilots.

The story follows the 5 Gundam pilots, Wufei Chang (Gundam Shenlong), Trowa Barton (Gundam Heavyarms), Duo Maxwell (Gundam Deathscythe), Heero Yuy (Wing Gundam), and Quatre Raberba Winner (Gundam Sandrock). Their mission is to destroy the Organization of the Zodiac, or more commonly referred to as OZ for short. The 5 pilots each start out on sepearate missions, only to join up later on while on Earth. Along the way, Heero meets (then occasionally runs into) Relena Dorlian, who is actually Relena Peacecraft of the pacifist Sanc Kingdom.

After joining up, they split up and take on various missions in teams. Heero, however runs into OZ’s “lightning count,” Zechs Marquise (Relena’s brother, Milliardo Peacecraft). Zechs introduces the the Tallgeese in battle against Heero on many occasions, one of which Heero self detonates the Wing Gundam, nearly killing himself. Later on, the Gundams returned to outer space only to find that the space colonies they were sent from have sided with OZ. Marked as rebels, they fell on hard times. Quatre witnessed his father’s murder, Duo’s Deathscythe was destroyed, and Wufei (along with Duo) were imprisoned by OZ.

At this time, a new Gundam was introduced, Wing Zero. This Gundam looked like and had the same kind of weaponry as the Wing Gundam, but one of the most noticeable additions was it’s cockpit system, the ZERO system, a system that directly interfaced with the pilot’s brain and fed the pilot tactical data on the fly. The only downside of this was that prolonged exposure caused hallucinations and in some cases, insanity. The Gundam was being piloted by Quatre who used it to destroy a natural resource satellite and a colony. The suit was later used by each of the other 5 pilots, and Zechs Marquise.

After returning to Earth, Heero and Quatre take refuge in the newly reopened Sanc Kingdom, being governed by none other than Relena Peacecraft. The kingdom however is being pressured by the Romafeller Foundation, the group that controls most other countries as well as controls OZ. OZ’s former leader, Treize Kushrenada had been confined to Romafeller headquarters. In his confinement, he built his own Gundam, the Epyon. Treize gave Epyon to Heero to fight with. Much like the Wing Zero, this suit was also equipped with the ZERO system. After being affected by the system, Heero fought once more against a returning Zechs, who was piloting Wing Zero. After the battle, they exchanged suits. During that battle, Relena formally dissolved the Sanc Kingdom due to the tremendous pressure from Romafeller. She then became the chief representative for Romafeller (at first in image and gradually in real life) under the title Queen of the World.

Eventually, Treize was released from confinement and relieved Relena of her crown. Treize then took control of Romafeller and at the same time, Zechs returned to space and became the leader of the White Fang, under his true name of Milliardo Peacecraft. The White Fang had seized control of a battle station OZ was building for Romafeller to show its millitaristic power, called Libra. Zechs fired the main cannon at the earth, causing great damage to the earth. This prompted Treize to start gathering all of the millitary power he could muster from earth’s forces, while the Gundams remained neutral.

The White Fang continued to take it to the earth forces by taking out the only remaining OZ base in space, Space Fortress Barge. Eventually, the Gundams fought against the White Fang. Earth’s forces were ready to strike. During the epic final battle, Heero (still piloting Wing Zero) fought against Zechs (piloting Epyon). Their battle was broadcast to all of Earth and space. When the citizens saw the battle, they put their differences, whether from the colonies or from earth, and formed what became the Earth Sphere United Nation. All that was left to do was destroy Libra. However that task was much harder than the Gundam pilots originally thought. In the end, it took a blast from Wing Zero’s dual buster rifle to finish the job.